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The Transnational Law Institute at the Washington and Lee University School of Law will offer an honorary lecture by Prof. M. Cherif Bassiouni entitled "Iraqi High Tribunal: Saddam Hussein Conviction and Execution". The lecture, followed by questions, will be held in Lewis Hall Room A from 10:30 to noon on Tuesday, Feb. 6.

Bassiouni is one of the world's leaders in the field of international criminal law and war crimes trials. W&L's Transnational Law Institute will be hosting him from Feb. 5 - 6.

Bassiouni has served the United Nations in a number of capacities, including as chairman of the Security Council's Commission to Investigate War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia (1992-94); Commission on Human Rights' Independent Expert on The Rights to Restitution, Compensation and Rehabilitation for Victims of Grave Violations of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1998-2000); vice-chairman of the General Assembly's Ad Hoc Committee on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court (1995); and chairman of the Drafting Committee of the 1998 Diplomatic Conference on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court. In 2004, he was appointed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as the Independent Expert on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan.

He is distinguished research professor of law at DePaul University College of Law and president of the International Human Rights Law Institute. He is also president of the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences in Siracusa, Italy, as well as the honorary president of the International Association of Penal Law (President 1989-2004), based in Paris, France.

In 1999, Professor Bassiouni was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the field of international criminal justice and for his contribution to the creation of the International Criminal Court.

He has received military and honor medals from the German, French, U.S., Austrian, Egyptian, and Italian governments, as well as numerous civic awards. He is the author of 27 and editor of 44 books, and the author of 217 articles on a wide range of legal issues, including international criminal law, comparative criminal law, and international human rights law. His publications have appeared in Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, French, Georgian, German, Hungarian, Italian, and Spanish. His work has been cited by the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the United States Supreme Court, as well as by several United States Appellate and Federal District Courts, and also by several State Supreme Courts. He has received four honorary doctoral degrees.